Last week, Thomas White announced his resignation from the Dallas Police and Fire Pension System board, saying he would step down midway through a four-year term. Dressed for the occasion in his police uniform, he said he had lost faith in pension leaders and cited low funding levels, expensive supplemental savings accounts and shrinking transparency.

All are crucial issues for an organization facing billions of dollars’ worth of obligations and intense public pressure. The problem was that White was short on details. If he intended to play the whistle-blower, he merely teased us with a thin overview.

“It’s come to the point where I’ve lost faith in the leadership to provide the direction that I believe we as a board need to go,” White said last week.

Although he used some charts during the speech, he provided no documentation to the media and bolted without answering reporters’ questions. He hasn’t elaborated in public since then. Colleagues say that White didn’t pursue these issues in open session or private meetings with trustees and members. Those would have been ideal venues for raising a warning flag.

And unlike a corporate board, trustees for the pension operate more like a city council, so they don’t have to speak in a unified voice. A credible dissenter can prompt a healthy discussion that nudges an organization forward.

If the $3.2 billion police and fire pension is in trouble, we all need to know, because taxpayers may ultimately be on the hook. That’s why White’s exit was front-page news. But if he wants to make a difference, he should fight harder and put up more facts.

“It seemed like he was grandstanding for some unknown reason,” said Ron Pinkston, president of the Dallas Police Association.

Pinkston said that White hasn’t shared his concerns with other officers, either in meetings or newsletters. He had a brief conversation with White last week and had the impression that White wanted the pension to make faster improvements for younger police. Their benefits took a hit two years ago after the economic downturn.

White didn’t respond to my email requests, and leaders at the pension say they don’t know his motives.

“I had no idea this was coming,” said Chairman George Tomasovic, a firefighter.

After the meeting, Tomasovic told reporters that he felt blindsided. He would have called a meeting with White to hash out any issues, he said, if he’d known what was coming.

“This is not what we need now,” Tomasovic said about White’s parting shot.

The pension has been dealing with bad publicity for more than a year. Its Museum Tower project in downtown Dallas is in a dispute over reflected light with the Nasher Sculpture Center, pitting some arts lovers against the fund that provides retirement for about 9,200 active and retired police and firefighters.

The controversy also put the spotlight on the pension’s investment strategy. It favors real estate and private equity plays and has a smaller concentration of stocks and bonds. That’s worked well over the long haul but has lagged the last few years, when the stock market accelerated.

The Dallas fund has more than half its money in real estate and private equity, with much of the private equity backed by real estate. That concentration is about three times the average for Texas public pensions, according to a survey of 53 public employee pension funds in Texas.

The Dallas fund has roughly half the level of stocks and bonds as the average Texas pension.

Naturally, it’s missed out on some Wall Street gains. For the 12 months that ended Sept. 30, the Dallas pension grew 5.8 percent compared with an average of almost 15 percent for the other Texas funds. The Dallas Police and Fire Pension was last among the group for the one-year and three-year periods, based on the survey by the Texas Association of Public Employee Retirement Systems.

But it scored the highest annual rate for the past 20 years and was near the top for 10-year performance, too.

Tomasovic cited the longer returns in this month’s newsletter to members, saying that years ago, fund leaders decided to not rely so heavily on stocks and bonds. The pension has said it must be aggressive to meet its obligations, and it regularly vets results with consultants.

“If they come back and ask for benefit changes, we’ll do it,” Tomasovic said.

Two years ago, to strengthen the pension, members voted to require more member contributions and to scale back benefit formulas for new hires.

The changes will improve the financial outlook gradually. But if some trustees don’t believe they’re enough to keep the fund on track, they should say something — long before resigning.